ABSTRACT
This chapter delivers a balanced account of the successes and failures of the Ma Ying-jiu era. The authors agree that Ma’s greatest achievements consisted in a substantial reduction in cross-Strait tensions and the institutionalization of the cross-Strait relationship. These came with increased economic interaction between the two sides, which helped Taiwan’s economy, and with an increase in the international participation of the Republic of China. However, Ma’s policies did not lead to the demilitarization of the Taiwan Strait. The economic benefits were distributed unequally across Taiwan’s society, contributing to a feeling that privileges were being unfairly granted to Taiwan’s conglomerates. These feelings were exacerbated by Ma Ying-jiu’s revitalization of Chinese nationalism at a time when Taiwanese identity formation was being consolidated. Public discontent culminated in the 2014 Sunflower Movement, the starting point of a dramatic defeat for the KMT, which was eventually destroyed at the polls in the 2016 presidential and legislative elections. Taiwan had never been more economically dependent on China than it was at the end of the Ma Ying-jiu era, but this has to be seen against a background of stable cross-Strait relations.
